The four key components of implementation research: how we’re organising and sharing what we learn

Implementation research (IR) is the study of how to apply proven ideas in real-world settings, testing and learning along the way to ensure they work effectively at scale. uBoraBora is part of the movement for more implementation research in education.

One of the key reasons IR in education is hard to adopt is how it’s documented.?Often it’s “in people’s heads” and “on my computer” - and what IR documentation that does exist is often hard to find, hard to recognise, and even when you do get your hands on it, it’s tough to know how to apply it to your specific context. This has informed how we organise and share what we learn across our portfolio, working to make these hard won lessons structured and actionable.?

To do this we are organising our insights from IR efforts around four key components we consider essential:

1. Bit to Tweak? – The specific aspect of a programme that could be improved.
2. Objective? – The goal behind that improvement as the programme scales.
3. Relationships – How the team works together, often overlooked but critical to success.
4. Approach – The methodologies used to test, learn and drive improvements.

And yes, if you spotted it—they spell BORA!-- which means “better” in Swahili and is the goal of using IR. In this post I’ll share a bit about each of the four components, with more coming in the days and weeks ahead.?

1. Bit to Tweak: small adjustments can lead to big impact

Every programme has components that could be improved, and small changes can lead to significant results.?

To locate our IR work in the evidence base, we’re using the Science of Teaching Structured Pedagogy framework and the Teaching at the Right Level learning Agenda as reference points - to align tweaks with broader evidence and learn from others tackling similar adjustments. We’ll share more on how we’ve thought about this in our next post.?

These "bits to tweak" serve as entry points for deeper discussions on implementation research and what really moves the dial for improving teaching and learning. Across our portfolio, teams are experimenting with specific bits like materials, teacher training, and ongoing support to refine their programmes. We’re capturing the tweaks at this level of detail and sharing what works and how.

2. Objective: pursuing a goal on the path to scale

Each tweak is made for a reason - to tackle major challenges in scaling education programmes. In the uBoraBora portfolio, teams are working across these three objectives:

• Adaptation – Modifying interventions to fit different contexts or student populations.
• Efficiencies – Improving speed and reducing costs on the path to scale.
• Uptake – Ensuring programme elements can be integrated into government systems.

These objectives help us frame implementation research as a deliberate, structured process, rather than a series of isolated experiments. We selected this first cohort to work across these objectives because they were the ones that emerged as most present across the sector in initial discussions. In other words, these were the areas that education programmes came up against most often.?

3. Relationships: fostering a culture capable of learning and adapting

Rachel Hinton often says that “implementation research is about people, not paper” and we couldn’t agree more. As Amy Jo Dowd puts it, “Successful IR collaborations pursue a culture of curiosity and avoid fear of failure.”

We all know this to be true, but somehow these relational factors are often neglected in both conversations and the literature about IR.?

We’re making sure this "soft stuff" - team culture, learning mindsets, and adaptability - is captured as rigorously as technical findings. Because, as any experienced practitioner will tell you, this soft stuff is often the hardest to get right.

As we unpack what we’re learning, we will share actionable strategies to support open, inquisitive team environments.?

4. Approach: moving beyond the tweaks

Identifying a successful tweak isn’t enough—we also need to document the process behind how the team arrived at the successful tweak so others can use the same approach, rather than copying a solution that might not fit their context.?

Here’s an example: an education programme operating in Zambia might find that one hour of teacher training per day for a week delivers great results. But instead of blindly replicating the ‘one hour’ rule in, say, Ghana, other teams should replicate the experimental approach that led to that insight instead - ensuring they find the right answer for their own setting.

Part of our work is to ensure that the most useful lesson learned - how to arrive at the next means to improve - is replicated by others. We want to learn more than ‘what works’ but how the team adapted the evidence-based ideas to their system to improve teaching and learning.

In this fourth category, approaches, we will highlight techniques that move IR forward, such as blending qualitative and quantitative methods effectively and how to ‘right size’ investments in tweaks alongside other programme priorities. We can’t wait to share more about this work .?

If you like the sound of how we’re learning and you’re interested in insights from the uBoraBora teams, please follow for more. If you have feedback we’d love to hear it, comment below.?

Huge thanks to our funders Clio Dintilhac , Benjamin Piper, Hetal T. advisors Amy Jo Dowd , Christine H. Beggs, Laura Poswell, Waly Wane and our phenomenal grantees Meerkat Learning, Angelica Towne Amporo, FHI 360, VVOB in Uganda, Rising Academies, Justice Rising International, Impact Network and Building Tomorrow and the many friends and collaborators we're part of this movement with.

#uBoraBora #BetterBetter #FoundationalLearning #ContinuousImprovement #SubSaharanAfrica!?